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2. Nanaan (Caleb)
Text
mɔtuɴuɴɝxu tuŋ ɔmuŋ im mæn. Mimmæɲuɴɝxu mu tem tuku muʔum kemeʔun. Sæɲɲuɴɝxu ɔ temmætemmæɹɔ xæn pɔmɔmæn ɸinæʔɔ, tæn siɲɲuɴɝxu tɔŋ ɲæ, tæn æsæn. ɸuɴɴætuɴ ŋɔɴɴuɴ muʔum ŋæŋ qiɲuɴɔtuɴ, qiɲɲæɲuɴ mu tem tuɴ, “piten, muʔum ɸinæ, ætekesanɝ ɹexɔ, xɔɹuɴɴuɴɝxu ŋi xɔɹæʔe tin tɔɹæm. ætenenteneɴɴuɴɝ mumuŋ kunæn tin tɔɹæmtɔɹæm: tuŋ temenuŋ æŋ ɸæmænim.”
Backtranslation
The fire is burning low. I am barely seeing my writing. The having consumed 8 packs of cigarette friends, who were sitting close together, were still talking. Although my tired translator wanted to sleep, I said to him: “Please, my friend Alexander Retlov, we will be riding for only six hours tomorrow. We will easily be at our destination the day after tomorrow: the end of the white valley.”
Grammar
Grammar Book
Relevant Phonological Rules:
-When two nasals are adjacent, the first assimilates in place to the second nasal.
-When two vowels are adjacent, there is epenthesis of a glottal stop.
-When a uvular nasal occurs after a front vowel or word initially, it is expressed as the palatal nasal
Word Order
-Head verbs in a main clause always occur in the second to last position from the end of the clause. However, dependent verbs and head verbs in dependent clauses will always occur in the first position of their clause.
-Adjectives come in between the definite article and the noun. Participles will always be the first adjective if there are multiple.
The Article
-The article can function as the definite article, the relative pronoun, and as a substantive third person pronoun. It agrees in gender, case, and number to the head or referent noun, unless it is functioning as the relative pronoun, in which case it will only agree in gender and number.
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Sing Pl Sing Pl Sing Pl
Ergative u ɔ i e æ æ
Absolutive tuŋ tɔŋ tiŋ teŋ tæŋ tæŋ
Accusative tun tɔn tin ten tæn tæn
Dative tuɴ tɔɴ tiny teɲ tæɲ tæɲ
Genitive tum tɔm tim tem tæm tæm
Noun Morphology
-Nouns have gender, number, and case a full chart can be seen below. It might look familiar.
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Sing Pl Sing Pl Sing Pl
Ergative -u -ɔ -i -e -æ -æ
Absolutive -uŋ -ɔŋ -iŋ -eŋ -æŋ -aŋ
Accusative -un -ɔn -in -en -æn -æn
Dative l -uɴ -ɔɴ -iɲ -eɲ -æɲ -æɲ
Genitive -um -ɔm -im -em -æm -æm
-The Ergative case is the subject of transitive verbs, the absolutive is the subject of intransitive verbs, and the accusative is the object of transitive verbs.
-A noun that means a location or direction, reduplicated will act as a verb and take verb morphology to mean “to be at location” or “to lie to this direction”.
Adjectives and Adverbs
-Adjectives and Adverbs are morphologically inert and have indistinguishable morphologically from each other. Adjectives always precede nouns and follow the article when it is used.
Verb Morphology
-Verbs are almost always found in infinitive forms with an auxiliary of the verb to be or in participle forms.
-Infinitives will be marked with the ending -ɴuɴ/ɲuɴ.
-Tense is expressed with the verb to be as an auxiliary (head) verb and an infinitival form.
-Aspect is expressed with an suffix on the infinitival ending. Stative aspect is unmarked. Perfect aspect is marked by ɝ. Continuous aspect is marked by ɝxu.
-Participles are formed first by suffixing the aspect directly to the root then by suffixing the noun system of endings. A noun and participle in the dative case can stand alone as an independent clause expressing conditional, causative, or other relevant, contextual information.
Verb To Be (infinitival form of tum)
Present Tense Past Tense Future Tense
Sing Pl Sing Pl Sing Pl
1Pincl. tem ten tæm tæn tim tin
1Pex. - ɸun - ɸæn - ɸin
2P æm æn ɸæm ɸæn ɸim ɸin
3P im tin ɸæm tæn ɸim ɸin